Of Silver Sands
by Kyrseis
Summary: There is a path we all must take, and a journey we all must make. And often enough there are people waiting for you at the end that make it worth the pain it took to get there" Implied KaiXIrene. Post series. Rated for safety.


There are very few speeches in movies that I love more than Gandalf's description of death in Return of the King. The lines inspired me with this idea for a oneshot.

Disclaimer: I don't own Blood, its characters, or Gandalf's death speech of awesome.

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**_Of Silver Sands: _**

_"There is a path we all must take, and a journey we all must make. And often enough there are people waiting for you at the end that make it worth the pain it took to get there."_

It was becoming so hard for him to speak; to will his lungs to take in and push out enough oxygen to force a sound through the thick air in the solemn white room. Had he even currently possessed the energy to move, he was not quite sure he would have been able to. Wires, tubes, cables- all running off of his body into the various machines that gave him the foothold to cling to all that was left of his life. No, he could not move. He could barely breathe to speak.

But Kai could hear. Kai could hear and, however dimly in his old age, Kai could see.

Kai could see the dark hair and distinctive eyes of his beloved sister Saya- who still looked as young and beautiful as the day that she came into his life. That day he, George, Riku, and she had formed the most unconventional of families. He could see her wrap her deceptively frail-looking arms around one of her sobbing nieces as they tried to cope with the foreign concept of mortality. There were no tears in Saya's eyes, but the way Haji's hand rested on her shoulder, Kai could tell she was drawing his strength to keep the tears hidden in her heart.

Silly Saya...always thinking she has to be strong for everyone. But yet...

"I'm glad...you could be here, Saya. It would have really sucked not to be able to say goodbye."

It came out in a forced whisper from his cracked lips, but he still managed the grin he had been so good at throughout his life. Kai had lived long enough to have to watch Saya slip off into deep sleep twice- long enough to say goodbye to her for thirty years at a time. Now, it was his turn.

"Daddy..." He heard a weak and quivering voice with his left ear. He was vaguely aware of the sensation of her hand closing over his as it rested on the hospital bed. Although she was the child of Diva, she still looked so much like Saya and eternally youthful like both. Yet she also still looked so much like her father- the brother he had lost so many years ago.

"Daddy, you don't have to leave us" she pleads. "Why won't you take Auntie Saya's suggestion? You can live forever with me, Auntie Saya, Uncle Haji, sister...all of us!" Tears made her voice quiver as she pleaded. "You don't have to leave us". As he focused his gaze on his red-brown eyed daughter, he could see Saya's eyes making the same plea.

Kai was silent for what seemed a long while before making the terrible effort to shake his head in the slightest way. "It's my time to go, kid." Despite his words, he still smiled at her. "Besides, being stuck as an eighty-four year old man for all eternity would really be a drag." He laughed the best he could, and he could hear a strangled chuckle out of his blue-eyed daughter wrapped in Saya's arms.

"I love you, Daddy."

"I know."

It was getting to be time. He could feel it.

"Come take my hand, kid." She wiped her tears and did as she was told.

"The time is coming..." Haji had simply voiced the thought that was going through everyone else's mind.

"Hey Haji?"

"Yes, Kai?"

"You still play that overgrown violin of yours?"

"I do."

"Play something for me, will ya?"

"Of course."

The last thing Kai felt in this world were the hands of his daughters in his own. The last thing he saw were Saya arms around them, a desperate attempt at a comforting smile on her lips. The last silent words on his lips were "I love you all" _Yeah, even you H_a_ji, I guess, _and the last thing Kai Miyagusuku heard as he slipped away from the world was the warm tone of Haji's bow moving against his cello strings mingling with the soft soprano of his blue-eyed daughter's voice.

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He awoke to the sound of the softest of voices carrying his name upon the gentle wind. Kai's eyes met the perfect blue of a clear sky, and his hands met the softest and finest of what felt like - what _was_- silver sand that shifted as the breeze carried it in swirls across the ground. He could hear his name again, but this time there was something else that went along with it. Distant sounds of crashing waves reached his ears as well.

He expected it to be harder to stand but as he moved to push himself up against the sand that glittered in the sun, he noticed a freedom of movement he had not felt in decades. Confused, he ran his hands against his arms, his neck, his hair, and finally his face. He was 18 years old again, standing and watching the crystal waves break into pearlescent foam upon the most beautiful beach he had ever seen.

That was when he saw her- the figure in a white coat facing the rising sun while the wind ran its fingers through the tendrils of her long pale-gold hair.

_"Kai"_

"Irene..." His eyes widened in shock.

"I waited so long..." Her soft voice came again over the wind. "I waited so long to be able to watch the sun rise with my own eyes." Irene turned around to face him with a beautiful contented smile that he had not seen since the day during that war when she became lost to him. "Now I watch it every day. I feel the warmth of the sun on my face, and it does not burn me anymore."

She held out a hand to him inviting him to come to her. Kai obliged- savoring the sensation of the fine silver sand between his once-again youthful feet.

"I don't think you'll mind it here, Kai. It's a beautiful place." She gave him a cheerful look from her blue-green eyes that dazzled in the rising sunlight. Although Kai was still working hard to take it all in- the reality of his own death, the presence of Irene, his arrival in this unparalleled paradise that at the same time felt all so familiar- he had to agree with her.

"You know..." He began. "I may have kinda missed you, Irene."

She only closed her eyes, smiled and brushed her exposed fingertips across his jawbone. Kai closed his own eyes. He took in the roar of the waves, the way the wind blew his hair about, and the warmth of Irene's tiny palm pressed ever-so-slightly against his cheek. They savored this moment of complete and entirely comfortably sweet silence between them which seemed to feel like an eternity far too short.

_Welcome to heaven, Kai. _

Kai was startled out of his revelry when he felt himself being pulled along as Irene grabbed his hand and led the way. She had disposed of her jacket and now wore a white dress that blew in the breeze and allowed the previously-forbidden sun to caress her creamy white skin.

"Aaah! Irene? Where are we going?"

"It may not be Paris, but you have a promise to keep!" They started to run hand in hand towards a hill where the glittering silver sand met deep emerald grass that looked as soft and warm as any blanket, and all the while he heard the beautiful sounds of her laughter. "Besides, I want to show you something!"

Standing atop the deep-jade hill, the first thing he felt was his heart skip several beats in both shock and happiness. The first thing he saw was his father with that oh-so-familiar smile on his face waving his hand at him. The first silent words through his mind were "I could never tell you how much I've missed you all", and the first things Kai Miyagusuku were the words "race ya to him!" in the voice of his brother, Riku, and the accompanying laughter of Moses and Karman that followed.

"I think you're right, Irene. I don't think...I don't think I'll mind it at all here."

_Welcome home..._

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Wow, I'm really rusty at this fanfiction stuff. It was kind of depressing to write, not going to lie. I wrote it in a little less than an hour, all the while listening to Haji's gorgeous cello music.

I'm totally a Kai x Irene fan, so….

Reviewers are much loved!


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